Darling in the FranXX: The Rose Who Had No Thorns
by TatoThePowerful
Summary: The Virm may have been defeated, but the battle for the forbidden love shared between Zero Two and Hiro wages on. Hiro is forced into a strange place and the questions are pilling up with no clear answers.


Home

"If we have souls, I swear I'll meet you again on Earth." Zero Two said as she embraced Hiro one final time, their world being encompassed in a bright white light. The sensation of peace falling over both Hiro and herself as everything faded away, leaving her surrounded by a warm glow both inside and out. "Is this death." Zero Two wondered to herself as she floated in this bright oblivion.

"More along the lines of Purgatory." a familiar voice spoke, " It is not life nor death but merely the area in between, the space where our souls reflect back upon our lives." Zero TwoHiro looked around for the source of the voice, was it the Virm? Did the bomb not finish them off? "Who are you?' Hiro called out. A small blue form trailed by a single tail slowly appeared in front of her.

"It is I, The Klaxasouar Queen. I gave you the remainder of my life force so that you and that human may defend our home." Hiro was taken aback for a moment before once again composing herself " If I'm dead then where is Zero Two?" Hiro said scanning his surroundings for any sign or trace of the one he loved.

"Think of it like a book with each page representing a reality or a parallel timeline, each one similiar to its neighbor" The Queen paused for a moment before continuing " The how and why are not important however. Similar to a drop of water, a soul can seep between realities upon death. It is possible that this has happened to your companion." Hiro cast the Queen an expression of concern "

"First and foremost I have to find us a way out of here." The queen smirked " Which I may have just done." Hiro didn't answer, rather he stood motionless, lost in thought. He was running over everything that had lead him to this moment. He steeled himself and looked back at The Queen, "Alright, let's find Zero Two and get out of here." The look that crossed the Queens face more than said enough.

Hiro raised an eyebrow. The Queen cast Hiro a look of sympathy "I found Zero Two, however I can not break through to her. There's too much interference, almost as if something is blocking her from my mind." Hiro clenched his fist "And the one glimps past the walls around her is not something I would have liked to see," Hiro Swallowed hard, taking a step towards the Queen "It appears that the souls of all her dead Stamens are tormenting her.

Without a thought Hiro turned and began walking away."Where are you going?" asked the queen not trying to hide her annoyance "I'm going to find Zero Two." The queen let out a mental sigh in the privacy of her own mind, or so she thought.

Hiro turned on the spot, eyes brimming with tears "Just because you locked yourself away for who knows how long and had no one to talk to does NOT give you the right to judge me and Zero Two. I would have been perfectly content dying alongside her, but by some weird turn of fate I'm stuck with miss high and mighty." Hiro stopped talking, choking on his own emotions "Now you're standing here telling me I may never get to see her again. That I just have to accept that she's stuck, suffering alone in some weird corner of purgatory."

The Queen didn't move, nor did she speak "First you throw her out of Strelitzia and kidnap me. I can't accept that. If you're not going to help me find her then just stay out of my way." Hiro finally broke down into weeping sobs. _'Why does everyone keep getting in the way, all i want in life is to be with my darling'_ Before the queen could retort Hiro looked up at the queen, a deep pain burning behind his teary eyes. The Queen stiffened _'Where have I seen those eyes before?'_

It was a rainy day, very little light penetrated the thick clouds covering the sky above. There was a large amount of other Klaxo Sapiens huddled around a freshly covered hole in the ground adorned at the head by a beautiful marble slab. On the slab was engraved the name "Marxuial Zentaplatas". Kneeling in front of the slate was a woman weeping into her hands, tears running freely through her fingers onto the freshly kneaded soil below. The woman looked sharply at what The queen could only assume to be herself. The same eyes that had caused this memory glared back at her.

And just like that the Queen snapped back to reality, looking sadly down upon the prone form of Hirowho was still shaking with sobs.

"Hiro," The queen said telepathically "I have a proposition for you." Hiro slowly lifted her head to lock eyes with the queen "I will help you" The queen said hesitantly, still taken aback be whatever or whoever it was she just saw. "We will find and recover your' The corners of the queen's mouth curled in a slight grimace "Darling if you promise me that you and Zero Two produce more of our kind." Hiro wiped away tears, sitting up before responding "I'll do anything to be with her again." The queen, without realizing it, smiled. She did not know where she learned this gesture nor why she was doing it.

"Very well." The queen closed her eyes once again "Here's the plan,'

The sky was a bright blue color without a cloud to be seen, nearby a rabbit munched contently on a rose bush as a flock of sparrows flew happily overhead. Kokoro was sitting on a park bench with her and Mitsuru's child reading to her a picture book depicting the story of a young girl in a red hood going to visit her grandmother. Her child, whom they named Ai, was smiling and giggling, enthralled by the story.

It has been a little over three years since they fought off the Virm and retook earth. There were still more problems than solutions, but slowly they were rebuilding. The water situation was handled primarily by the water purification systems they had been able to salvage from the various remaining plantations. The food situation had become substantially less of a problem after the life from their old home started to spread out and re-fertilize the planet. As far as constructing a new civilization, the construction was primarily done by the males and the Franxx. All in all, the survivors of humanity were living in near comfort, they were even procreating and repopulating at a sustainable rate. '

"Hey Kororo!" Mitsuru called as he strode up to the two loves of his life. Kokoro and Ai both looked up with a smile "Daddy!" Ai exclaimed as Mitsuru came over and picked her up, spinning in a circle before embracing her and Kokoro. "I see the headaches aren't bothering you anymore." Kokoro said embracing Mitsuru back. "Not as much as they used to at least." Mitsuru replied, planting a kiss on his wife. Mitsuru sat down beside Kokoro, wrapping his arm around her " Yeah, given the circumstances, we've all done pretty well with ourselves. Papa be damned" Kokoro's brow furrowed "Watch your language around Ai." Mitsuru paused before laughing

"Mama, whys daddy laughing, he said a bad word." Ai said frowning. This only made Mitsuru laugh harder. "I don't mean to laugh, it's just that over the past 3 years, I never fully believed that bad words would be something I had to worry about." This made Kokoro smile with him, "I never thought about it that way."

"There they are.' Miku said as her and Ichigo approached the two lovers "We've been looking high and low for you " Ichigo stated. " We're all meeting up at Futoshi's bakery for our weekly meeting.": Kokoro smiled warmly at her two friends "I'd forgotten about that, it's just such a beautiful day." Miku looked around "Yeah, it really is. It almost reminds me of the old days in the Birdcage." At the name of their old quarters all four of them paused, their eyes staring off into the distance momentarily. Ichigo was the first to speak "The only way this could be any better is if Hiro and Zero Two were here." Talking about the old days or especially their lost comrades was still a sore topic for Squad 13. They all vividly remembered the day the Hiro and Zero Two went off to fight the Virm all those years ago.

The wounds of the past only being deepened by the sudden crumbling of Zero Two's statue that had been left behind. With the loss of that they had all felt like they had finally lost any remaining connection with Hiro and Zero Two. However they were blessed with a beautiful tree that grew in her place. This tree grew faster than any tree they had seen yet, already reaching the size of half of a FranXX. Even though they all knew deep down that their friends were gone, the presence of that beautiful tree brought upon everyone who know Hiro or Zero Two a sense that their friends were still , Futoshi and everyone else should already be there waiting for us, we should get going." With that everyone started their walk to Futoshi's bakery for the meeting.

Hiro swallowed hard, trying his best to relax _'Zero Two, hang in there. I swear I will not rest until you're returned to me' _Hiro thought to himself He looked at the Queen "I'm ready." He closed his eyes as the Queen embraced him with her tail, holding him tight. "I will remain here and serve as a focal point between the living world and this." The queen said before connecting to Hiro's mind.

Hiro shifted uncomfortably as the Queen's mind and soul linked with his. The plan was for the Queen to use her psionic abilities to return Hiro to the world of the living. She had mentioned something about a large Sakura tree that had bloomed where Zero Two had once been. To do so she would have to put Hiro into a state of near death, and use a portion of what she called her essence to ensure his transmission back into a physical form. Him being at least half Klaxo Sapien helped greatly.

It started out soft, slowly gaining volume one octave at a time. The noise not coming from around him, but from within him, vibrating the most basic building block of his existence. Hiro bit his lip and gritted his teeth, trying not to call out in pain as the noise reached an almost unbearable level. _'Hang in there, you've endured greater pains' _ the queen said into Hiros mind. With this encouragement, Hiro stood strong until finally an encompassing darkness overtook him.

_'Did it work? Where am I?' _Hiro thought to himself as he stood at the base of a large snow covered tree in the middle of winter. He looked slightly lower than eye level, noticing a familiar girl with red horns sitting against the tree. "Zero Two!" he exclaimed as he rushed towards her. She looked up, blood dripping from her eyes and down the sides of her face. Upon closer inspection, there was no color to her eyes. Hiro froze, looking down at what he now realized to be the corpse of his love. Then, she talked "Why would you want to go on living if you know I can't be by your side? Did I really mean the little to you?"

Hiro was quick to respond "No, Zero Two, you know that's not true." Hiro stuttered towards her, falling to his knees and embracing her. "You know life without you is meaningless." He responded, tears now flowing freely. "I know you're in pain right now and I know you're suffering, but I promise you. I will bring you back and we'll go see the world Just like I promised we would."


End file.
